NRA: The Practice Range has been deemed inappropriate for 4-year-olds.

Last week, MEDL Mobile released NRA: Practice Range, a virtual shooting range app for iOS. The (and I'm being very generous here) "game" sparked controversy, coming in the midst of a National Rifle Association campaign against "violent videogames" conducted as part of the traditional games of pass the political parcel that follow any national tragedy. The "parcel," in this case, happens to be partial responsibility for the senseless murder of 20 children and 7 adults in Newtown, Connecticut.

The outrage at the game was largely unwarranted. The NRA is specifically campaigning against "violent" games, and while NRA: Practice Range is many things, most of them bad, it isn't really violent unless you're concerned for the welfare of cardboard targets. What did concern some critics, however, was the game's age rating. The app, which features virtual target and skeet shooting as well as safety and gun-handling tips, was originally billed as suitable for kids aged 4 and up.

Apple apparently disagrees. After public condemnation of the title from the likes of New York Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, and Newtown Police Commission member, Joel Faxon, Apple has changed the game's rating to ages 12 and up.

Missouri state rep, Diane Franklin, recently proposed a bill that would not only tax violent games, but spend that money on treating the "mental health conditions associated with exposure to violent video games." Considering there are no documented mental health conditions associated with exposure to violent video games, one can only assume the collected tax would be put towards a much-needed Death Star fund.

The NRA shoots themselves in the foot by making a shooting-range game while simultaneously making accusations that violent games are the cause of mass-murder school shootings. That screenshot in the main article may show "cardboard targets", but any idiot over the age of 11 can clearly ascertain that it's representative of a human body with the two key points -heart and head- are highlighted in red. That's how the NRA rolls, they disguise it as "gun safety" while teaching people to aim for the head and heart of a person. SHAME ON THEM! SHAME!

P.S. That Quintin Tarantino interview was very much indeed funny as hell. Loved it.

P.P.S. Taxation of something we enjoy, just because they don't like it and/or want more money.....oh how our founding father would turn in their grave. Boston tea party anyone? Wasn't that tea tossed into the bay as protest for the excessive taxation King George did on it that the colonists didn't approve of?

P.P.P.S. THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FUNDED A VIOLENT VIDEOGAME FOR THE PURPOSE OF TRAINING PEOPLE AND TRYING TO RECRUIT THEM INTO THE ARMY: http://www.americasarmy.com/ OUR GOVERNMENT PAID FOR A VIOLENT VIDEOGAME WITH TAXPAYER DOLLARS! Food for thought.

Deathfish15:The NRA shoots themselves in the foot by making a shooting-range game while simultaneously making accusations that violent games are the cause of mass-murder school shootings. That screenshot in the main article may show "cardboard targets", but any idiot over the age of 11 can clearly ascertain that it's representative of a human body with the two key points -heart and head- are highlighted in red. That's how the NRA rolls, they disguise it as "gun safety" while teaching people to aim for the head and heart of a person. SHAME ON THEM! SHAME!

P.S. That Quintin Tarantino interview was very much indeed funny as hell. Loved it.

P.P.S. Taxation of something we enjoy, just because they don't like it and/or want more money.....oh how our founding father would turn in their grave. Boston tea party anyone? Wasn't that tea tossed into the bay as protest for the excessive taxation King George did on it that the colonists didn't approve of?

P.P.P.S. THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FUNDED A VIOLENT VIDEOGAME FOR THE PURPOSE OF TRAINING PEOPLE AND TRYING TO RECRUIT THEM INTO THE ARMY: http://www.americasarmy.com/ OUR GOVERNMENT PAID FOR A VIOLENT VIDEOGAME WITH TAXPAYER DOLLARS! Food for thought.

please please please do not bring that in here. For one that game is extremely well made. Second, it's a recruiting tool, so what? The government pays for recruiting devices all the time, and TV ads are most likely more expensive than the development of that game.

Deathfish15:The NRA shoots themselves in the foot by making a shooting-range game while simultaneously making accusations that violent games are the cause of mass-murder school shootings. That screenshot in the main article may show "cardboard targets", but any idiot over the age of 11 can clearly ascertain that it's representative of a human body with the two key points -heart and head- are highlighted in red. That's how the NRA rolls, they disguise it as "gun safety" while teaching people to aim for the head and heart of a person. SHAME ON THEM! SHAME!

P.S. That Quintin Tarantino interview was very much indeed funny as hell. Loved it.

P.P.S. Taxation of something we enjoy, just because they don't like it and/or want more money.....oh how our founding father would turn in their grave. Boston tea party anyone? Wasn't that tea tossed into the bay as protest for the excessive taxation King George did on it that the colonists didn't approve of?

P.P.P.S. THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FUNDED A VIOLENT VIDEOGAME FOR THE PURPOSE OF TRAINING PEOPLE AND TRYING TO RECRUIT THEM INTO THE ARMY: http://www.americasarmy.com/ OUR GOVERNMENT PAID FOR A VIOLENT VIDEOGAME WITH TAXPAYER DOLLARS! Food for thought.

please please please do not bring that in here. For one that game is extremely well made. Second, it's a recruiting tool, so what? The government pays for recruiting devices all the time, and TV ads are most likely more expensive than the development of that game.

Don't bring what in here? It wasn't that I'm against violent video games, instead I wanted to point out the hypocrisy of our government scapegoating video game violence -for the random act of one crazy person that may or may not have been ever exposed to them- when they themselves funded and helped created one.

Cost isn't the issue, medium is. A commercial that shows 'cool army stuff' in a real-world application isn't the same as an interactive video-game that allows players to simulate real war situations and act them out. That's the whole reason why politicians are on the warpath against violent video games, because their interactivity with the player allows for the player to enact the violent situations rather than just seeing someone else do them (such as in TV and movies).

Aardvaarkman:Exactly. If it's just about target practice, then why are the targets shaped like a cross between humans and coffins?

Because it's target practice? As in, it's preparing you for shooting at humans, because those generally happen to be the target. You don't learn where a deer's vitals are by shooting at the head/heart of a humanoid cutout.

I got pretty annoyed when I saw the report on this on CNN this morning[1], because it was a blatantly manufactured controversy. They kept harping on about how it was disgusting that the NRA was marketing this game to children, and their evidence was the 4+ rating. They seemed to be under the impression that the NRA provided the rating, and it wasn't just Apple (apparently mistakenly) deeming it an essentially inoffensive app during the certification process.

Judging from the description of the ratings on Wikipedia, the 4+ rating was even justified, because none of the things listed as something that would merit a higher rating are actually contained in the app. This is basically Apple cowing to a manufactured outrage, because apparently it was a slow news day in the early morning.

[1] although it had a lot to do with how perky those... things were at 5 AM. Nothing human is that perky at 5 AM.

Deathfish15:The NRA shoots themselves in the foot by making a shooting-range game while simultaneously making accusations that violent games are the cause of mass-murder school shootings. That screenshot in the main article may show "cardboard targets", but any idiot over the age of 11 can clearly ascertain that it's representative of a human body with the two key points -heart and head- are highlighted in red. That's how the NRA rolls, they disguise it as "gun safety" while teaching people to aim for the head and heart of a person. SHAME ON THEM! SHAME!

P.S. That Quintin Tarantino interview was very much indeed funny as hell. Loved it.

P.P.S. Taxation of something we enjoy, just because they don't like it and/or want more money.....oh how our founding father would turn in their grave. Boston tea party anyone? Wasn't that tea tossed into the bay as protest for the excessive taxation King George did on it that the colonists didn't approve of?

P.P.P.S. THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FUNDED A VIOLENT VIDEOGAME FOR THE PURPOSE OF TRAINING PEOPLE AND TRYING TO RECRUIT THEM INTO THE ARMY: http://www.americasarmy.com/ OUR GOVERNMENT PAID FOR A VIOLENT VIDEOGAME WITH TAXPAYER DOLLARS! Food for thought.

please please please do not bring that in here. For one that game is extremely well made. Second, it's a recruiting tool, so what? The government pays for recruiting devices all the time, and TV ads are most likely more expensive than the development of that game.

So according to many idiot politicians, violent video games train people to kill and desensitize them to violence. But, it's okay if video games train people to kill and desensitize them to violence as long as they're going to be killing FOR AMERICA! Can't have your cake and eat it to.

On topic, firing a realistic gun at a human-ish target is, by its nature, a pretty violent act. Honestly, I think any game that puts even a semi-realistic fire-arm in the hands of the player should be at least E10+ or even Teen. Not that it would matter since the people who think video games are the great Satan ignore the fact that the ratings clearly state these games aren't meant for kiddies anyway, but at least then we could point the blame squarely at the parents who allowed their kids access.

Deathfish15:The NRA shoots themselves in the foot by making a shooting-range game while simultaneously making accusations that violent games are the cause of mass-murder school shootings. That screenshot in the main article may show "cardboard targets", but any idiot over the age of 11 can clearly ascertain that it's representative of a human body with the two key points -heart and head- are highlighted in red. That's how the NRA rolls, they disguise it as "gun safety" while teaching people to aim for the head and heart of a person. SHAME ON THEM! SHAME!

P.S. That Quintin Tarantino interview was very much indeed funny as hell. Loved it.

P.P.S. Taxation of something we enjoy, just because they don't like it and/or want more money.....oh how our founding father would turn in their grave. Boston tea party anyone? Wasn't that tea tossed into the bay as protest for the excessive taxation King George did on it that the colonists didn't approve of?

P.P.P.S. THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FUNDED A VIOLENT VIDEOGAME FOR THE PURPOSE OF TRAINING PEOPLE AND TRYING TO RECRUIT THEM INTO THE ARMY: http://www.americasarmy.com/ OUR GOVERNMENT PAID FOR A VIOLENT VIDEOGAME WITH TAXPAYER DOLLARS! Food for thought.

please please please do not bring that in here. For one that game is extremely well made. Second, it's a recruiting tool, so what? The government pays for recruiting devices all the time, and TV ads are most likely more expensive than the development of that game.

So according to many idiot politicians, violent video games train people to kill and desensitize them to violence. But, it's okay if video games train people to kill and desensitize them to violence as long as they're going to be killing FOR AMERICA! Can't have your cake and eat it to.

On topic, firing a realistic gun at a human-ish target is, by its nature, a pretty violent act. Honestly, I think any game that puts even a semi-realistic fire-arm in the hands of the player should be at least E10+ or even Teen. Not that it would matter since the people who think video games are the great Satan ignore the fact that the ratings clearly state these games aren't meant for kiddies anyway, but at least then we could point the blame squarely at the parents who allowed their kids access.

I would bet money that those same idiot politicians dont even know this game exists

Video Games are no more to blame that the weapons manufactures. The problem is the people who would go out an mass murder children. We need to focus on condemning the murderers, protecting the children, and avoiding a witch hunt for some third party to take the blame.